Sunday 2 October 2011

Sunday 2nd Oct: Serpentine Gallery - Pavillion and Anri Sala





Yesterday we took advantage of the unbelievable sunny warm October day and went to see the Serpentine Gallery Pavillion before it comes down this year. It is a labyrinth of dark tunnels that lead you out to an open air courtyard garden where the sun light pierces the space, designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. "With a fine selection of materials Zumthor creates contemplative spaces that evoke the spiritual dimension of our physical environment, emphasising the role the sense and emotions play in our experience of architecture"
From this we stepped inside the actual gallery itself for the first day opening of Anri Sala's show. The sound that flows around the separate rooms is a musical box rendition of The Clash's Should I Stay Or Should I Go - brilliant! There is a little music box with a handle but unfortunately its out of bounds to touch and have a go. But there is a major interactive element in that the tune's perforated score has been replicated onto the outside walls in holes carved straight through. This means the park is treated to the tune and transversely the gallery has shards of outside light beaming thru.
I actually spent so much time enjoying the weather outside, that I left it till the last 10 mins for the show and missed a film of an abandoned 1950's Buckminster Fulller surveillance station dome in Berlin............. so I think I'm going to have to make another trip back!

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